Astrid

Chapter 1: Astrid

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I was bored out of my mind. I took a sip of strawberry champagne and scanned the ballroom. I was hiding in a dark corner away from my aunt, who had been trying to set me up with eligible noblemen all night. I knew she meant well, but I didn't like how they ogled me.  My uncle's living room was jam-packed full of gentlemen and gentlewomen ( I guess that would be gentlepeople) and most of them were dry and boring with a few exceptions. 

Three young and extremely pretty girls scanned the ballroom, found me (I guess my hiding spot wasn't very good) and fluttered over to me. The eldest, prettiest, and the ringleader started to talk very fast, mumbling something about a prince.

"Slow down and speak clearly Addie," I said with some impatience. I pulled her in front of me. She was only 15 and a good head taller than me. "And please hide me. Aunt Fina is still searching for me."

My cousin Adelina had a glint in her eye, a glint of excitement. All three of them were unusually excited. They were practically vibrating. "You'll never guess what Florence found out!" Florence was a year younger and shyer than Addie. She and her twin Isolde were Addie's best friends and only friends other than me, since the little countryside province my uncle owned didn't attract a lot of young girls her age. "Florence, tell her."

Florence was really excited, which didn't happen much. "So since Maria was fired, my father decided to get a new maid. Her name is Leticia, and she has a sister that is the maid of one of Guinevere's ladies in waiting. " 

Isolde couldn't retain her excitement and cut in. " And she says that the Prince of Elmeria is at King Arthur's court to be knighted!" 

At this, my heart skipped a beat. The trio were always excited when a new young nobleman came to court, and even more when he was wealthy and powerful, but Eli of Elmeria had a reputation of being extremely gorgeous and our age. And most eligible bachelors were quite the opposite.

Just then my aunt cut in. "There you are, Astrid! What are you doing over here? Come, there are a lot of gentlemen who want to meet you." Addie laughed at me, and Florence and Isolde gave me sympathetic smiles before they fluttered off to gossip. They were lucky since their official debut would be when they were 17, and they didn't have to make mindless chatter. I knew I could have refused to debut and gone off to a convent or something, but my father was in very big debt and I wanted to marry well to help him get out of it.

I had debuted about a month ago and had already gotten countless proposals. It was because, since I hit puberty, my face had evened out and a lot would say that I was quite beautiful. I tried to hide it the best I could because I knew that some powerful men liked to take what they wanted by force.

Aunt Fina took my arm and led me to a man old enough to be my father. 

"Sir Richmond, may I present to you my eldest niece Astrid of Braughn." He stared at me for a long while, which was very common among men (I could feel at least a dozen men staring at me) and kissed my hand. It was wet and slobbery. "So this is the famed beauty." He pulled me into a slow waltz, and we made mindless chatter until he passed me on to the next nobleman.

That was my whole night until the guests started leaving, and I retired to my bedroom upstairs. It was very hard for me to sleep, and not just that night, but most nights. I would spend hours looking up at the ceiling and thinking, and writing in a journal that held dozens of untold stories which were the fruit of my sleepless nights. 

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